Emory University Program
Charles E. Hill, MD Emory University Hospital, Dept. of Pathology 1364 Clifton Rd NE, Rm H-185A Atlanta, GA 30322-8110 Tel: (404) 727-4283 Fax: (404) 727-2519 E-mail: mmojonn@emory.edu Anatomic and Clinical Pathology Residency Program Residency Program Director: *Charles E. Hill, MD, PhD Number of residents (per year / total): *8 residents/ year, can take up to 9 * Currently 32 residents Visas Sponsored: *J1 and H1 Pros: *Diverse training sites with different patient populations and training environments. *Large volume (approximately 50-60,000 surgical cases per year) and variety of specimens. *Incredible soft tissue and sub-specialty rotations. *Being a tertiary referral center creates interesting cases. *Ample research opportunities with most residents present at meetings. *Well-structured, interactive CP rotations. Cons: *Multiple hospitals means multiple places to drive (hospitals within 20 minutes of each other). Average work hours on surg path? *60-70 hours/week. * Usually 11-14 hour days. Are you allowed to do external rotations? *Possible if for no longer than 2 weeks, typically funded by external grants (ex. ASCP). Famous Faculty: *Sharon Weiss, MD - Expert in soft tissue pathology. Wrote major soft tissue textbook: Soft Tissue Tumors. *Volkan Adsay, MD - Expert in GI and pancreatic pathology. Do you feel you have: Adequate preview time? *Yes. Support staff (P.A.’s, secretarial, etc.)? *Emory: 3 PA's gross and aid residents, 1 PA is dedicated to frozen sections and helps gross in downtime. PA's gross all biopsies. * Grady: 2 PA's gross and aid residents. PA's will help with frozen sections as needed. * Emory Midtown: 4 PA's gross and aid residents. PA's will help with frozen sections as needed. Adequate AP Teaching? *Yes, weekly AP didactics, gross, autopsy, and unknown conferences. *Dedicated one-on-one sign out time with attendings. Adequate CP Teaching? *Weekly CP didactic which rotates on a 2-year cycle and call/case reviews. *Rotation-specific didactic series and case conferences. Fellowship Opportunities? * See Below. Clinical Chemistry Fellowship Fellowship Program Director *James C. Ritchie, PhD; Corinne R. Fantz, PhD Program Info *Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES *Length of program (1 or 2 years): 2 *Number of fellows per year: 1-2 *Vacation Time (annually): 15 days (with an additional 12 days of sick leave) *Average work hours: typical 8 hour day, though the schedule may shift. *Call Schedule: You will do a one month rotation of 8am-5pm on-call from the core laboratory. However, you will recieve calls throughout the fellowship when the resident on the rotation is unable to accomodate. Pros: *Industry perspective and insight - two month rotation at Quest Diagnostics *Regulatory perspective and insight - a one month rotation at the CDC can be arranged *Spend time at Emory University Hopsital, Emory University Hospital Midtown, and and Grady Memorial Hospital - yields a broader view of academic positions *Rotations through many departments to gain a broad overview of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine *Excellent preparation for the ABCC board examination from both faculty and senior fellow *Many diverse opportunities for research Cons: *Time to devote to research projects is limited *The structure of the fellowship is plastic. This has an advantage in that each fellow can tailor their experience to their interests. However, the major disadvantage is that in the first few months the fellow may by confused and disoriented by the perceived lack of planning. This is balanced, for the most part, by guidance from the senior fellow and an "open door policy" by the faculty. Cytopathology Fellowship Fellowship Program Director: Michelle Reid, MD Fellowship Length: 1 year Positions Per Year: 2 Position for 2014: Filled Position for 2015: Filled Position for 2016: Filled Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: Dermatopathology Fellowship *Fellowship Program Director: Douglas C. Parker, MD: Pathology-trained. *Other Faculty: **Jamie Mackelfresh, MD: Dermatology-trained. **Robert Morris, MD: Pathology-trained. **Brian Pollack, MD, PhD: Dermatology-trained. **Benjamin Stoff, MD: Dermatology-trained. *Fellowship Length: 1 year *Positions Per Year: 1 **Position for 2014: Filled **Position for 2015: Filled ** Position for 2016: Filled *Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1:' (8/2013)' I did my dermpath fellowship at Emory in 2011-2012. It was an outstanding year and I was very pleased with my experiences there, the relationships I established with members of both the pathology and dermatology departments, and the quality of my dermpath training. The case volume is just right for a fellowship, I think, in that there is plenty of material to see and all of the cases can be seen by the fellow without being overwhelming. There was a great variety of both neoplastic and inflammatory diseases and I saw a great many unusual and rare entities during one year. The cases come from both the Emory dermatology service as well as from community dermatologists. There are also quite a few outside expert consult cases, internal consultation cases from other services (including some from the soft tissue and hemepath services), and confirmatory consultations (mainly on melanocytic neoplasms including melanoma and atypical spitzoid proliferations). I was particularly pleased to the volume of melanoma and other melanocytic cases that I saw during the year. Additionally, the weekly melanoma tumor board conferences were invaluable to my understanding of the team-based management of melanoma patients. My clinical experiences in dermatology were mostly at Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. This necessitated a 20 min commute on clinic days and added some stress if the case load was heavy or other things were going on in dermpath and then I was rushing to get to clinic; but the quality of the cases and the teaching at Grady were well worth it. Grady is a hospital largely focused on indigent care, and as such, there were a great many dermatologic conditions that were unusual, advanced, or unique due to the Grady patient population. Finally, the dermpath faculty are all fantastic. They are intelligent and conscientious physicians, devoted teachers, and all around great people. The entire attitude and atmosphere of the dermpath division at Emory is benign, positive, and friendly. *Doug Parker is a very smart, enthusiastic, and incredibly nice guy, and he is the right person to be the program director. His devotion to educational excellence for the fellows is patently obvious in everything he does. He instituted (and actively participates in) weekly dermpath journal club and weekly dermpath textbook reading schedules for the fellow. Very active teacher at the multiheaded scope. *Jamie Mackelfresh, MD: Dermatology-trained. Practices both clinical dermatology and dermatopathology. Friendly and easy to work with. Excellent at giving feedback on diagnoses. Fellows typically pre-dictate cases for Jamie and then fellow and resident sit with Jamie later to review the pre-dictated cases together. *Robert Morris, MD: Pathology-trained. Practical approach to cases. Gives fellows lots of autonomy during pre-sign out. *Brian Pollack, MD: Dermatology-trained. Very involved in basic science research, but also practices clinical dermatology and dermatopathology. *Benjamin Stoff, MD: Dermatology-trained. Great educator and incredibly nice guy. Takes time to do clinical derm didactics for the path-trained fellows. Other thoughts: Historically, Emory dermpath has mostly accepted internal (Emory) candidates for their fellowship position with only a few exceptions. I guess this is likely a pro if you are an Emory resident but a con if you are not. This was never stated to me by anyone as being an official policy or even preference of the program; it's just an historical observation that I made. I personally think it is a quite understandable situation in that Emory has relatively large dermatology and pathology residency programs, the dermpath teaching and exposure for these residents (largely by Doug Parker) is outstanding, and thus there are almost always stellar candidates who are both interested in and qualified for the dermpath fellowship at Emory. Still, I think this is worth noting particularly for external applicants who may be interested in the program. Jerad M Gardner, MD (talk) 02:37, August 19, 2013 (UTC) Comment #2:' (--insert date of comment here---)' Forensic Pathology Fellowship Fellowship Program Director: Jan M. Gorniak, DO Fellowship Length: 1 year Positions Per Year: 1 Position for 2014: Filled Position for 2015: Filled Position for 2016: Filled Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: Gastrointestinal / Hepatopathology Fellowship Fellowship Program Directors: Charles A. Parkos, MD, PhD, Director Fellowship Length: 1 year; 2 years for GI research fellowship Positions Per Year: 1 plus 1 every other year (for GI research fellowship) Position for 2014: Filled Position for 2015: Filled Position for 2016: Filled Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: Hematopathology Fellowship Fellowship Program Director: David Jaye, MD, PhD Fellowship Length: 1 year Positions Per Year: 1-2 Positions Per Year: 1 Position for 2014: Filled Position for 2015: Filled Position for 2016: Filled Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: HLA Fellowship Fellowship Program Directors: Robert Bray, PhD and Howard Gebel, PhD Fellowship Length: 1 years Positions Per Year: 1 Position for 2016: Filled Medical Microbiology Fellowship Fellowship Program Director: Colleen Kraft, MD Fellowship Length: 1 year Positions Per Year: 1 Position for 2014: Filled Position for 2015: Position for 2016: Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: Molecular Genetic Pathology Fellowship Fellowship Program Director: Karen P. Mann, MD, PhD Fellowship Length: 1 year Positions Per Year: 1-2 Position for 2014: Filled Position for 2015: Filled Position for 2016: Open Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: Neuropathology Fellowship Fellowship Program Director: Daniel J. Brat, MD, PhD Fellowship Length: 2 years Positions Per Year: 1 Position for 2013: Filled Position for 2015: Filled Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Soft Tissue Pathology Fellowship *Fellowship Program Director: Sharon W. Weiss, MD **Dr. Weiss Biography *Fellowship Program Co-Director: Mark A. Edgar, MD *Fellowship Length: 1 year *Positions Per Year: 1 **Position for 2014: Filled *Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Overview Dr. Weiss has a very busy consultation service in soft tissue pathology. She currently spends the morning in the medical school, where she is one of the Associate Deans. In the afternoon, she comes to Emory University Hospital to sign out soft tissue consult cases. The volume of soft tissue cases in her service is significant...nearly 4000 cases per year. The vast majority of these are sent in from pathologists around the US and even from other countries, although a fair number of cases are from within the Emory system. The fellow will see a wide variety of reactive lesions, benign neoplasms, and malignant neoplasms during the course of the year. Variety of Cases The cases vary on a daily basis, and thus sign out is a nice potpourri of soft tissue lesions, both common and exceedingly rare. Additionally, carcinomas, lymphomas, dermpath lesions, and various other non-mesenchymal lesions find their way into her consult cases. Thus, the fellow has abundant opportunities to interact with other sub-specialty services at Emory. In particular, hemepath and dermpath are consulted most often. Fellow Duties An average day includes between 10 to 15 new soft tissue cases, as well as follow up on previous cases (immunos, radiology, acquiring patient history, etc). The fellow essentially manages the service (previews cases, sign out cases with Dr. Weiss, dictate consultation letters, order immunos and molecular/FISH, call outside pathologists/clinicians, occasionally explain diagnoses to patients, etc), which provides excellent opportunities for learning management and communication skills. The support staff are very friendly, helpful, and competent, and make the job manageable. Dr. Weiss is a masterful communicator with impeccable grammar, both in terms of speaking and writing. As the fellow progresses, one of the duties will be to write/dictate consult letters for Dr. Weiss, which she will subsequently review and edit. This allows the fellow to learn not only excellent grammar, but also the subtle art of communicating the diagnosis, and the thought process behind it, in an educational but professional and non-patronizing way (this experience is invaluable). On average, the fellow works from approximately 8-9am until around 6pm, although there is a decent bit of flexibility built into this schedule (being prepared for 2pm sign out is the most crucial point, and the schedule is somewhat flexible around this). Dr. Weiss expects the fellow to work on at least one research project during the year, although it goes without saying that opportunities abound, given her enormous archive of cases and her level of expertise and recognition. About Dr. Weiss (unofficial) Dr. Weiss is really a fantastic person to work with. She is very professional, but also knows how to have fun, tell a joke, or relate a humorous story. Her skill with soft tissue tumors is amazing, of course, but she is also very capable at explaining her thought process and reasoning in subtle detail. These are the "pearls" you cannot learn well from books, and working with her is a priceless experience. She expects the fellow to work hard and take the job seriously, especially in regards to patient care, but she by no means expects perfection or flawless diagnostic skills. Working with her has truly been a pleasure. In addition to her professional duties as a pathologist, Dr. Weiss is a very accomplished chef, particularly in the art of baking fancy wedding cakes with intricate and ornate decorations (ribbons, roses, etc). About Dr. Edgar (unofficial) Dr. Edgar came to Emory in Fall of 2010. He is truly a great addition to the program and his teaching style complements Dr. Weiss's very nicely. He typically signs out 3-4 days per month or whenever Dr. Weiss is out of town or otherwise engaged. Sign out with Dr. Edgar is energetic and enthusiastic, filled with numerous pearls and interesting minutiae regarding soft tissue tumors, as he converses with the resident and fellow about each case. Having trained at Memorial Sloan Kettering and also worked for several years in private practice, he is able to bring different perspectives to bear in assessing cases, a very nice feature that allows the fellow to be open minded regarding varying points of view on soft tissue tumors. Additionally, he is very experienced in bone pathology, and he maintains a nice collection of bone cases, which he willingly shares with residents and fellows upon request. Past Fellows The following pathologists completed fellowship training in soft tissue pathology under the mentoring of Dr. Sharon Weiss: *Kathryn L. Lane, M.D. (1996) *Gelareh Farshid, M.D. (1997) *Andrew Folpe, M.D. (1999) *Zoya Arbiser, M.D. (2000) *Michael Koch, M.D. (2000) *Steven Billings, M.D. (2001) *Jesse McKenney, M.D. (2002) *Lisa L. Lyons, M.D. (2003) *Andrea Deyrup, M.D., Ph.D. (2004) *Bonnie L. Balzer, M.D., Ph.D. (2005) *Rajiv Patel, M.D. (2006) *Kurt T. Patton, M.D. (2007) *Shadi Qasem, M.D. (2008) *Mauricio Zapata, M.D. (2009) *Anita Sebastian, D.O. (2010) *Jerad M. Gardner, M.D. (2011) *Scott R. Lauer, M.D. (2012) *Konstantinos Linos, M.D. (2013) * Jesse Hart, D.O. (2014) Surgical Pathology Fellowship *Fellowship Program Director: Adeboye O. Osunkoya, MD *Fellowship Length: 1 year *Positions Per Year: 3 **Positions for 2014: 3 (filled) **Positions for 2015: 3 (filled) ** Positions for 2016: 3 (filled) *Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: Core Rotations (10 months) Surgical pathology fellows participate in nine months of surgical pathology within a subspecialty system at Emory University Hospital. During this time, at least 2.5 months will be spent on the (daytime) frozen section service. An additional month of surgical pathology will take place at Emory University Midtown Hospital, which provides a private practice atmosphere where fellows are responsible for all surgical cases, Instead of having sign-out, the cases are handed off to the attendings who provide feedback as needed. Other Rotations (2 months) Surgical fellows also participate in a soft tissue month working with the soft tissue fellow on a very robust, predominantly consult service. During the soft tissue rotation exposure is gained in a diverse array of soft tissue entities under the expert guidance of exceptional faculty. Surgical fellows are also allowed one month of elective time and are allowed to rotate on any AP service. Interdepartmamental and Intradepartamental Conferences Surgical fellows participate in the presentation of multiple interdepartamental conferences including, but not limited to GYN, GU, and breast tumor boards. Typically, approximately four times a year, all three pathology fellows organize a frozen section unknown conference. Additionaly, surgical pathology fellows are required to present at one AP journal club and one pathobiology conference for the academic year. The pathobiology conference presentation typically consists of translational research derived from a journal article of personal interest. Surgical pathology fellows also attend all AP unknown conferences (once per week) and the daily surgical consensus conference. On-call Responsibility On-call responsibility varies from year to year, depending on the number of AP residents and fellows. In general, surgical pathology fellows take frozen section call once every 7-8 days during their core rotations. Fellows also cover 3-4 weekends per year. Faculty, Fellows and Academics The department of pathology has a very strong cooperative academic environment. The surgical pathology fellow is strongly encouraged to engage in a research project and there are many faculty members who can provide potential research ideas and opportunities. The surgical fellows work closely with the majority of the faculty members in the department of pathology, all of who are very skilled and knowledgeable pathologist with a great deal of insight and experience. Each attending provides a unique skill set, which enriches the program and the experience in a friendly, positive working atmosphere. The majority of the fellows, including all three surgical pathology fellows share a large office in the department. In this environment not only does great deal of sharing of cases, thoughts and knowledge occur, but friendships are made as well. Transfusion Medicine Fellowship *Fellowship Program Director: Cassandra D. Josephson, MD *Fellowship Length: 1-2 years *Positions Per Year: 1-2 **Position for 2014: Filled **Position for 2015: Filled ** Position for 2016: **Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: Infectious Diseases Pathology Fellowship (CDC / Emory) Fellowship Program Director: Sherif Zaki, MD, PhD Fellowship Length: 1-2 years Positions Per Year: 1 Position for 2014: Filled Position for 2015: Position for 2016: Accepts CAP Standardized Application: YES Comment #1: